The future of cryptocurrency is bright and cryptocurrencies are trending all over the world as the internet payments have been accepted by many companies. Cryptocurrency is trending payment and investment asset just like how people invest in mutual funds, real estate, market shares, silver, and gold nowadays. More investors are interested in investing their money on these cryptocurrencies, and the increased demand of cryptocurrency has increased its prices a lot.

It is important to note that it is not late to invest in cryptocurrencies. However, the fact is that we can’t invest more in Bitcoin because its price has already touched the sky. That’s why we have to choose the coins whose price is low and will increase in next couple of years.

There are more than 3000 cryptocurrencies in the world and it is really difficult to recognize the right cryptocurrency to invest. However, the future of cryptocurrency can be predicted by looking at their market cap and many others thing.

Investing in cryptocurrency can be fruitful if we select the right coin to invest. That’s why we have to be careful while investing our money in cryptocurrency. We can earn a good amount of money by trading altcoins. On the other hand, there will be huge chance of big loss if we are new.

Bitcoin started the trend and is still the leader. However, some of the other cryptocurrency that hit the scene within the last couple of years shows real promise with their block chain vastly improved and upgraded over Bitcoin’s very own.

Most people are at least somewhat familiar with Bitcoin even if they do not accurately understand how it works. However, once they begin to get involved with cryptocurrency, they may be surprised to learn that there are hundreds of cryptocurrencies (a.k.a altcoins) out there besides Bitcoin (CoinMarketCap listed more than 2000 altcoins at the time this guide was written).

Altcoins are an intriguing facet of the cryptocurrency landscape. However, they are not for everyone and Altcoin beginners often have many questions. This guide will provide a brief overview of altcoins to help newcomers decide whether or not to invest in them.

Definition of ‘Altcoin’

The word “altcoin” is an abbreviation of “Bitcoin alternative.” This means that the word „altcoin“ describes every single cryptocurrency except for Bitcoin, and Altcoins are referred to as Bitcoin alternatives since most altcoins hope to either replace or improve upon at least one Bitcoin component.

There are hundreds of altcoins, and more appear every day. Most altcoins are little more than Bitcoin clones and they do not survive for very long. They only change minor features, such as its hashing algorithm, distribution method, or transactions speed. One exception is Litecoin, which has branded itself as “silver to Bitcoin’s gold.” The reason for that is that, in addition to using a different hashing algorithm than Bitcoin, Litecoin has a much higher number of currency units.

It is important to note that some altcoins innovate by experimenting with useful characteristics Bitcoin does not offer. For instance, Ripple serves as a protocol users can employ to make inter-currency payments with ease, BitShares describes itself as “a fair version of Wall Street,” and Darkcoin hopes to provide a platform for completely anonymous transactions. Some altcoin ecosystems, such as Mastercoin and CounterParty, even utilize the Bitcoin blockchain to secure their platform.

Many Bitcoin enthusiasts argue that altcoins are totally unnecessary. Also, some say that, because they cannot rival the infrastructure Bitcoin boasts, altcoins will not succeed. However, altcoins have a significant role. Altcoins allow developers to experiment with unique features, and while it is true that, if the developers or community desires, Bitcoin can copy these features, fully-functioning altcoins are much better “cryptocurrency laboratories” than Bitcoin’s testnet. Moreover, one of Bitcoin’s most prominent goals is decentralization, and altcoins further decentralize the cryptocurrency community. Finally, altcoins give Bitcoin healthy competition and they give cryptocurrency users alternative options and forces Bitcoin’s developers to remain active and continue innovating. Users can adopt an altcoin if they do not feel that Bitcoin satisfies their digital desires. Also, the Bitcoin developers would have to adopt the features the community desired or risk losing its place as the preeminent cryptocurrency if enough users left Bitcoin for a particular altcoin.

What Was the First Altcoin?

Namecoin was the first altcoin and it was created. Namecoin’s primary purpose is to decentralize domain-name registration, which makes internet censorship much more difficult. However, it also functions as a currency.

Bitcoin is still leading the virtual currency pack, even with many close competitors. Newer and more innovative versions are getting launched. They offer modifications in areas like Proof of Stake, privacy, transaction speed, DNS resolution and more. A few altcoins have become popular and the rest of them are lesser-known.

Altcoins – huge list of guides and reviews

We have checked out and reviewed more than 200 altcoins, from the top ones to the almost unknown gems buried deep in coinmarketcap ranking. This list will be continually updated so make sure to revisit it every once in a while.

What Is Cryptocurrency and Why Use Them?

Cryptocurrencies are a completely digital form of money designed specifically to take advantage of the architecture of the internet. They can be used in ways that ordinary currencies can’t. Cryptocurrencies don’t rely on a standard financial institution to guarantee and verify transactions. Instead, cryptocurrency transactions are checked, or “confirmed,” by the computers of the users on the currency’s network. The computers that verify the transactions usually receive a small amount of currency as a reward, and the process of receiving rewards in exchange for verifying transactions is called “mining”. Mining is the main way how a new currency is produced here, and it works differently for different currencies.

What to Look For Before Purchasing or Investing In Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies are traded in different ways and they use a number of different algorithms.

The main characteristics that you must consider before purchasing or investing in cryptocurrencies are: retailer acceptance, verification method, and market capitalization and daily trading volume.

Retailer Acceptance – A cryptocurrency isn’t much of use if you can’t purchase anything with it, so before you invest in it, it’s very important to know who and where it was accepted. Some coins are simply built for other purposes and they aren’t designed to be exchanged for goods. Some of the popular cryptocurrencies are widely accepted just like Bitcoin, while some cryptocurrencies can only be exchanged for other cryptocurrencies.

Consensus Method – One of the main differences between cryptocurrencies is their verification method, and the oldest and most common method is called Proof of Work (POW). A computer has to spend time and energy solving a difficult math problem to gain the right to verify a transaction. But the problem with this method is that it needs a huge amount of energy to operate. On the other hand, Proof-of-Stake (POS) systems try to solve this issue by letting the users with the largest share of the currency verify the transactions. These systems claim faster transaction speeds and require less processing power to operate. However, concern over security means that few coins use an entirely proof-of-stake-based system.

Market Capitalization and Daily Trading Volume – A cryptocurrency’s market capitalization is the total worth of all coins currently in circulation, and at the time of writing, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization is nearly $139 billion. High market capitalization can indicate a high value per coin. It is important to note that the daily trading volume of currencies is more important than market capitalization.

Long-term cryptocurrencies to invest in

Here is a list of the Top 13 altcoins and cryptocurrencies in 2017/2018 according to market cap, future scope, demand, and value investment asset.

Ethereum

Ethereum is a true outlier and it is the only crypto-currency believed by experts to be able to overtake Bitcoin Market cap in the near future. Ethereum started in 2013 and had 40x growth rate over the last two years.

Its platform allows creating a smart contract that runs on a decentralized network and runs exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, fraud, censorship or any third party interface. The team behind Ethereum is really exceptional. They are doing an amazing job to show the real potential of the Ethereum. Also, the degree of adoption of Ethereum is phenomenal at the moment. Many developers are working on apps that use the potential of smart contracts. If one cryptocurrency can make it big, it’s Ethereum. If already went over 1000% over the course of couple of months and it could go 1000% more over the next few months – that much potential this cryptocurrency has.

How to purchase: Buy BTC on one of these exchanges linked below, transfer it to trading exchanges (Bittrex, Binance, Bitfinex, Poloniex ..) and trade for this altcoin.

You might consider trading coins on Binanceas it has by far lowest fees of all major exchanges. It is a new hit exchange that is surging to top of trading volume lists and receives heeps of praise from users.

Download a wallet from official website for safe storing. Of course, we always recommend buying hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S, Trezor or KeepKey and store the coin there if it is supported by these wallets.

Monero

Anonymous / private Bitcoin. Now, you may think, “What are you talking about? The BTC is anonymous already.” This is a very unfortunate albeit popular misconception. All BTC transactions can be seen by the public, and by giving out your wallet address to someone, the person is able to see all the payments you’ve sent and received. The black market (weapon manufacturers and drug dealers) created a solution for this. They basically created software that mixes your coins with other coins. Nevertheless, the software needs to be trusted and may not work correctly, which is pretty bad when your freedom depends on it. Monero has the mixing system built-in. This makes it perfect for any kind of black market. A popular darknet market adopted Monero, and this is how the currency got its first big growth boost.

Monero is an open-source, privacy-oriented cryptocurrency. The developers involved introduced this innovative cryptocurrency without setting aside any for themselves. The team has relied on donations and the broader community to further development. Monero was launched in April 2014 – read here more on monero.

How to purchase: Buy BTC on one of these exchanges linked below, transfer it to trading exchanges (Bittrex, Binance, Bitfinex, Poloniex ..) and trade for this altcoin.

You might consider trading coins on Binanceas it has by far lowest fees of all major exchanges. It is a new hit exchange that is surging to top of trading volume lists and receives heeps of praise from users.

Download a wallet from official website for safe storing. Of course, we always recommend buying hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S, Trezor or KeepKey and store the coin there if it is supported by these wallets.

Sia

Sia is a cryptocurrency set to dramatically change the way we look at enterprise cloud storage, and the technology is no doubt set to transform data storage in the future. It has its eyes set firmly on a market currently dominated by Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Dropbox.

Traditional cloud storage services such as DropBox upload customer’s data to a central ecosystem. The data is controlled here and thus exposed to all sorts of shady shenanigans such as personal data misuse, accidental loss, and database breaches.

With Sia your uploaded files are encrypted, broken up into tiny pieces and then spread across multiple hosts. This means superior redundancy (multiple copies of your data are securely stored across multiple hosts) ensuring data loss and snooping is no longer a problem.

What makes Sia so great is that anyone can participate and get paid for leasing their spare storage space. This is something many of us have with the price of hard drives being so low. When a host and an uploader connect a contract is formed. This contract is called a ‘smart contract’. It allows the renter to receive payments in exchange for their storage space being used.

Given SiaCoin’s potential, we strongly believe it is seriously undervalued. In fact, there are hundreds of other coins out there without a fraction of the usefulness of Sia. Read more on what is sia coin here.

How to purchase: Buy BTC on one of these exchanges linked below, transfer it to trading exchanges (Bittrex, Binance, Bitfinex, Poloniex ..) and trade for this altcoin.

You might consider trading coins on Binanceas it has by far lowest fees of all major exchanges. It is a new hit exchange that is surging to top of trading volume lists and receives heeps of praise from users.

Download a wallet from official website for safe storing. Of course, we always recommend buying hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S, Trezor or KeepKey and store the coin there if it is supported by these wallets.

Factom

Factom is a blockchain-based system that runs on top of Bitcoin. Factom is optimized to store millions of realtime records with a single hash. Factom allows companies to create immutable database, and they store database in their own blockchain, create a hash of that data, and store it in the bitcoin blockchain.

Factom is useful for all kinds of business apps, and they have got a huge contract with more than 25 smart cities in China. They are also working with other countries to create immutable database, which will allow government to secure their data. Factom had initially raised 5.3 million dollars in its Series A funding, but the company is so appealing that private investors were compelled to increase their investment in Factom. Factom raised a total of 8 million dollars in April 2017 from various high-profile investors, including Tim Draper, Stewart Title, and Bill Gates. See more on Factom cryptocurrency here.

How to purchase: Buy BTC on one of these exchanges linked below, transfer it to trading exchanges (Bittrex, Binance, Bitfinex, Poloniex ..) and trade for this altcoin.

You might consider trading coins on Binanceas it has by far lowest fees of all major exchanges. It is a new hit exchange that is surging to top of trading volume lists and receives heeps of praise from users.

Download a wallet from official website for safe storing. Of course, we always recommend buying hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S, Trezor or KeepKey and store the coin there if it is supported by these wallets.

XRP

When managing transactions, most crypto technologies are based on decentralisation. However, Ripple has a more traditional approach and it takes the idea of banking and in particular SWIFT transactions and provides a much needed upgrade by utilising blockchain technology.

Currently, when sending cross border fiat transactions money goes through multiple intermediaries. This can take weeks to complete. The process is not only limited to those banks ‘in the loop’ but is also riskier because when unaffiliated banks are working with each other, they have to issue IOU’s, which means a sending bank has less security should a receiving bank suddenly collapse.

Ripple addresses all these shortcomings by providing cheaper, instant transactions. These transactions are initiated using a single currency, XRP. Ripple and XRP are two parts of the same project. However, given XRP’s integral role and future use cases as a currency used by the general public, the price of XRP has rocketed in the last few months reaching nearly $0.30 at the time of writing this article.

Ripple was introduced in 2012, and there are also over 100 banks worldwide that are currently working with the Ripple team and trailing the system, including CIBC, ATB Financial, UBS, Reisebank, Santander, UniCredit, BMO Financial Group, Shanghai Huarui Bank, Abu Dhabi Bank, Standard Chartered, etc.

The technology will likely become the new defacto standard for financial institutions and banks wanting to transfer funds worldwide. In the future, it will become the currency of choice recommended by banking institutions and governments for general use. This makes Ripple well worth a sizable investment now.

How to purchase: Buy BTC on one of these exchanges linked below, transfer it to trading exchanges (Bittrex, Binance, Bitfinex, Poloniex ..) and trade for this altcoin. Or read our article on how to buy Ripple here.

You might consider trading coins on Binanceas it has by far lowest fees of all major exchanges. It is a new hit exchange that is surging to top of trading volume lists and receives heeps of praise from users.

Download a wallet from official website for safe storing. Of course, we always recommend buying hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S, Trezor or KeepKey and store the coin there if it is supported by these wallets. You can read here about other Ripple wallets you can use.

Stratis

Stratis is not coin. It is an end-to-end blockchain development platform that allows for complete sidechains that are non-disruptive to the primary blockchain. Stratis was one of the biggest risers in April and May of this year, and it is currently sitting comfortably at 8th position on CoinMarketCap.

The project opens up a world of possibilities for developers, and is seen as a direct competitor to Ethereum. Ethereum allows for smart contracts. However, they all exist on the primary blockchain. Smart contracts on Stratis eliminate this risk and live on their own true sidechain.

Its language choice is what gives this project a clear advantage. It allows developers to code decentralized apps in an existing, widely adopted programming language, C#, which is a huge advantage because it allows any current C# developers to begin exploring the platform, its uses and blockchain power with a minimal learning curve. This will undoubtedly lead to faster adoption and growth. Also, the project has backing by Microsoft and a very active development team. All these features make Stratis a winning project to invest in.

Stratis also recently announced its “Breeze Wallet”. This is a specialist wallet that aims to increase the privacy of both Bitcoin and Stratis platform users. This Bitcoin wallet will have Tumblebit built in, which is an incredible deal and will raise awareness of Stratis tenfold. This will likely trigger a price hike. Read our in-depth article on Stratis coin here.

How to purchase: Buy BTC on one of these exchanges linked below, transfer it to trading exchanges (Bittrex, Binance, Bitfinex, Poloniex ..) and trade for this altcoin.

You might consider trading coins on Binanceas it has by far lowest fees of all major exchanges. It is a new hit exchange that is surging to top of trading volume lists and receives heeps of praise from users.

Download a wallet from official website for safe storing. Of course, we always recommend buying hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S, Trezor or KeepKey and store the coin there if it is supported by these wallets.

Golem

Golem is built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. Golem is a project run by the group of Polish programmers. It is on track to becoming the world’s most powerful decentralised supercomputer. This supercomputer will process anything from scientific research in academia through to rendering the latest block buster movies, and once complete users will have supercomputer processing power at their fingertips.

However it does not stop there. Golem can also be used to process or mine any ‘big data’, for example identify trends in environmental changes, predict stock market movements, help assess and discover cures and better medical solutions, etc.

Its unlimited use cases is what makes the project exciting. Users earn GNT tokens by leasing unused processing power. These tokens can be re-used on the platform or traded on an exchange at the current market rate.

The technology is currently in its alpha stage. It can be downloaded and installed by anyone. Golem aims to eventually have Smartphones, huge data centres, laptops, and everything in between contributing to its ever growing cache of processing power, and with more and more processing power required everyday investing in Golem is a must for investor.

How to purchase: Buy BTC on one of these exchanges linked below, transfer it to trading exchanges (Bittrex, Binance, Bitfinex, Poloniex ..) and trade for this altcoin.

You might consider trading coins on Binanceas it has by far lowest fees of all major exchanges. It is a new hit exchange that is surging to top of trading volume lists and receives heeps of praise from users.

Download a wallet from official website for safe storing. Of course, we always recommend buying hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S, Trezor or KeepKey and store the coin there if it is supported by these wallets.

Zcash

Zcash is a crypto that aims to solve the same issues Monero does. Zcash leverages zero-knowledge proof constructions called zk-SNARKs. These constructions allow two users to exchange information without revealing their identities. The bitcoin blockchain contains records of the participants in a transaction, as well as the amount involved. On the other hand, Zcash’s blockchain shows only that a transaction took place, not who was involved or what the amount was.

Zcash was founded by Zooko Wilcox in October 2016, and it is the result of continuous efforts by developers to create cryptographic protocols that offer greater privacy.

It is important to note that the use of Zcash is not just for cybercriminals who engage in illegal transactions in the dark web. There are a number of legitimate reasons why a user would opt for anonymous cryptocurrencies such as Zcash, including a couple who are into eye-brow raising bedroom toys; an entity who would like legal services for a private matter like bankruptcy; a company who would like to protect its trade secrets or supply chain information from competitors; an individual with a chronic medical condition who would like to buy his pills online anonymously; etc. These are all examples of individuals seeking anonymity for privacy reasons.

How to purchase: Buy BTC on one of these exchanges linked below, transfer it to trading exchanges (Bittrex, Binance, Bitfinex, Poloniex ..) and trade for this altcoin.

You might consider trading coins on Binanceas it has by far lowest fees of all major exchanges. It is a new hit exchange that is surging to top of trading volume lists and receives heeps of praise from users.

Download a wallet from official website for safe storing. Of course, we always recommend buying hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S, Trezor or KeepKey and store the coin there if it is supported by these wallets.

Basic Attention Token (BAT)

This project has all the ingredients required to be extremely successful. The concept is awesome – connecting the publishers and advertiser without the middle man and his commission. People getting paid for their attention (hence basic attention token) and advertisers getting more awareness for their money while also having happy publishers who get more money as well (no middleman fees).

TEAM: The CEO is the creator of JavaScript as well as co-founder of Firefox and Mozilla. They brought on board a lot of people with proven track record. I personally invest on people before anything else, and this has made it a no brainer. PRODUCT: Already there, Braver Browser is awesome – I personally use it since 2 months ago and loving it for its speed and ads blocking features.

Those firms have a lot of interests in increasing BAT market cap and they have very deep pockets. I won’t be surprised if all of the sudden, the price just moon extremely high in a very short period of time.

The Anonize algorithm is built in a way that the user privacy is respected while publishers will be able to target effectively their users.

How to purchase: Buy BTC on one of these exchanges linked below, transfer it to trading exchanges (Bittrex, Binance, Bitfinex, Poloniex ..) and trade for this altcoin.

You might consider trading coins on Binanceas it has by far lowest fees of all major exchanges. It is a new hit exchange that is surging to top of trading volume lists and receives heeps of praise from users.

Download a wallet from official website for safe storing. Of course, we always recommend buying hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S, Trezor or KeepKey and store the coin there if it is supported by these wallets.

IOTA (IOTA)

IOTA is launched in 2015 and goes ‘beyond blockchain’ through its core invention of the blockless and quantum-resistant ‘Tangle’. The digital currency ‘iota‘ has a fixed money supply with zero inflationary cost.

IOTA offers zero-fee transactions & no no scaling limitatins on how many transactions can be confirmed per second. Further, unlike blockchain architecture, IOTA has no separation between users and validators (miners / stakers); rather, validation is an intrinsic property of using the ledger, thus avoiding centralization.

IOTA is focused on being useful for the emerging machine-to-machine (m2m) economy of the Internet-of-Things (IoT), data integrity, micro-/nano- payments, and other applications where a scalable decentralized system is warranted.

Their team is specific, they sometimes come across as arrogant and even rude, but they certainly seem to be very capable and intelligent crew. The machine to machine communication is the future and IOTA might be the technology that will fuel that communication.

There have been lots of good news for IOTA in the recent couple of week and that caused a big rally in prices and market cap. Some of the alleged partnerships they announced raised some eyebrows and questioning from the community, but nevertheless – the concept and the team make a good combo and IOTA certainly holds a lot of potential in the future.

How to purchase: Buy BTC on one of these exchanges linked below, transfer it to trading exchanges (Bittrex, Binance, Bitfinex, Poloniex ..) and trade for this altcoin.

You might consider trading coins on Binanceas it has by far lowest fees of all major exchanges. It is a new hit exchange that is surging to top of trading volume lists and receives heeps of praise from users.

Download a wallet from official website for safe storing. Of course, we always recommend buying hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S, Trezor or KeepKey and store the coin there if it is supported by these wallets.

Binance Coin (BNB)

Binance is a popular cryptocurrency exchange out of China that’s been gaining momentum over the past few months. It’s been quickly gaining ground in cryptocurrency market share, and as more people begin to use Binance, the price for Binance Coin (BNB) will also increase.

Binance is known for its fast transaction processing as well as its low trading fees (0.1%). Binance promises to offer strong performance, usability, and security. The Binance technology is capable of processing 1.4 million orders each second. This makes it a world leader in potential exchange volume.

Binance Coin allows you to get 50% off all trading fees.

Just recently BNB hit a price surge, and currently they have a promotion going where the trading fee is 0. However, the need for BNB will increase once it goes back to normal, thus increasing its value.

How to purchase: Buy BTC on one of these exchanges linked below, transfer it to trading exchanges (Bittrex, Binance, Bitfinex, Poloniex ..) and trade for this altcoin.

You might consider trading coins on Binanceas it has by far lowest fees of all major exchanges. It is a new hit exchange that is surging to top of trading volume lists and receives heeps of praise from users.

Download a wallet from official website for safe storing. Of course, we always recommend buying hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S, Trezor or KeepKey and store the coin there if it is supported by these wallets.

FunFair (FUN)

FunFair (https://www.funfair.io/) is a decentralised gaming platform, and it is advertised as “The world’s fastest Ethereum casino platform.” Thanks to their breakthrough technology, FUN tokens will be used as chips inside the casino. This is the first platform that solves many big challenges other blockchain casinos have. They have a working proof of concept (POC). They are working hard at finishing the development, so we should expect to see a raise in the token’s value once FunFair officially opens.

How to purchase: Buy BTC on one of these exchanges linked below, transfer it to trading exchanges (Bittrex, Binance, Bitfinex, Poloniex ..) and trade for this altcoin.

You might consider trading coins on Binanceas it has by far lowest fees of all major exchanges. It is a new hit exchange that is surging to top of trading volume lists and receives heeps of praise from users.

Download a wallet from official website for safe storing. Of course, we always recommend buying hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S, Trezor or KeepKey and store the coin there if it is supported by these wallets.

The Investment Process

Buying the Bitcoin with real money on any exchange and then selling the BTC for any currency from the list is the simplest way of investing.

I’ve used Coinbase to purchase BTC and Krakento purchase other currencies. It is important to note that Kraken has all the pairs from the list.

It is recommended not to keep any significant amount of assets on an exchange. After purchasing the currency of your choice, send it to a wallet without an internet connection, and remember to do some research and googling to ensure your storage is secure and solid.

Remember that the biggest points in an investment game are awarded for enduring discomfort, so prepare yourself to not short the investments with yet another market panic.

Also, beware of scam coins like Onecoin, Kashhcoin, etc, because they are here to loot people by showing lucrative returns.

Summary

I have written this article with a huge research. If you guys want to invest and get a huge profit in near future, then do it fast. Get started now if you don’t want to be left behind. You have to become stable to get success in crypto trading. That’s why you should invest now, wait and earn. Thank you for reading my article and I hope you all like my choices.

CaptainAltcoin's writers and guest post authors may or may not have a vested interest in any of the mentioned projects and businesses. None of the content on CaptainAltcoin is investment advice nor is it a replacement for advice from a certified financial planner.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CaptainAltcoin.com

Bitcoin has not peaked in my opinion. But I do think that one can yield better returns by investing in good altcoins rather than in a very expensive bitcoin. You will always turn those altcoin profits to BTC anyways (that is the whole point of buying small altcoins). Only a very small percentage of altcoins are a really long term holds – most of them are only means to accumulate more BTCs.

Thats right. I am like you too but I was in the thick of things and in spite of it lost about 5 to 6 btc’s in a coin that peaked in June and fell gradually over the next few months and for reasons unbeknownst, I was sitting on it without getting rid of it. Well, I must move on so for now my holdings for the future are ADA, Funfair and Vechain. Some coins mentioned in the article are great but very expensive though!

That is mostly due to the problems with VISA. TenX is working on their own banking license for Europe (and US, but I am not sure about that) so they wouldn’t rely only on 1 card issuer. So, TenX will surge once they resolve that which can happen either by VISA changing their approach to all crypto-card services or TenX gets their own banking license. But TenX team is top 3 in whole crypto world if you ask me – big, solid, serious team is the main reason I believe in this coin.

Thanks for your interesting post. What i am a bit confused about is iota, you also didnt list it here. Are there any concerns or why you think it does not have the same potential as the listed ones here?

I am still undecided on IOTA – the concept is great but their team is bit of enigma to me. They come across as rude and arrogant very often and their alleged partnerships with big companies (Microsoft and similar) are all unconfirmed and perhaps made up.

Please tell me that you don’t follow the notion that IOTA forged all of those articles about their partnerships with big industry. It is your duty to the public to to sift through everything out there, and separate garbage from gold, in order to usefully inform. {READ: https://blog.iota.org/iotas-data-marketplace-setting-the-record-straight-576fbf0b4513 } If IOTA does not stand at the top of the mountain within 5 years, it is simply because the world was already too entrenched in their blockchain dream to change course, midstream, and get onboard with a far superior technology.

Ethereum, Litecoin, and IOTA will stand apart from the endless supply of un-original copies that call themselves cryptocurrency. Ethereum is big, decentralized industry in the making. It is here to stay. Litecoin is the first of its kind to adopt the Lightning Network, which will cripple BTC within a year, because of its zero transaction times. IOTA…this is the ugly duckling of the group; unlike all others. It is simply not comparable to any other crypto in existence. It will either soar as the new standard of innovative networking for the IoT, or it will go down in glorious flame.

However, can’t all cryptos be seen as having the possibility of spontaneous combustion? Who makes the tides of popularity rise and fall with each passing moment? It is writers and analysts alone who control much of the love/hate relationship in this market. The vast majority of crypto investors understand very little about the actual technology they are putting their hard earned money into. The slightest breeze of negative news or movement topples faith like the house of cards that it is. Let’s face it. To the average person out there, this is all a get rich quick scheme, and we both know it. For the rest of us who actually believe in the movement and potential of this all, do us a favor, and do ALL of your research.

Read the white papers. Gather the statistics. Stand tall, so that you will stand out. And for goodness sake, don’t be like all of the other headline grabbers out there that only pass on what they heard or read, and cause the stampedes of misinformation to trample underfoot.

Thank you so much for sharing. I am a noob and started last week. Looking for long term gains. Can you help me with knowing whats the best wallet? I currently hold, BTC, ETC & LTC, only a couple hundred worth though and its on coinbase. Is coinbase a wallet? thank you sir…
BTW ripple is climbing fast. jumped up to $0.51 this morning. was trying to buy it for $0.27 yesterday ugh lol

There is a new ICO – CRPT or Crypterium Tokens. Looks like a top class management behind the launch and a wonderful concept to allow payments at cashless terminals. What makes me suspicious though is that they only accept BTCs and some other coins as deposits to buy their tokens. Also the visa/credit card charges to transfer money into their account is too steep and wire transfer has a high minimum limit. What is your opinion about CRPT?

Yes, I actually think that, if RDN proves its value and works like it is supposed (on bigger scale), I see most of the ERC-20 tokens utilizing it in some degree. Raiden is, among other coins, on our list of future adds right now.

Great to see Monero and ZCash on your list, I am very much an advocate for privacy and have a small stake in Monero already. Have you had a look at DeepOnion? It is another privacy focused coin that connects using the TOR network for improved anonymity.

DeepOnion seems like a promising project with some other cool features such as:
DeepVault which stores file hashes on the Blockchain so you can verify files you have been sent with confidence.
DeepSend which is still under development but aims to anonymise your transactions even further by sending them using escrow, mixers and guarantors rather than your coins going directly between wallets.
VoteCentral will allow the community to have input in the direction development will take which will be really interesting as the forums are pretty busy with dedicated member.
Payments are instant so no waiting like with Bitcoin and it uses PoS so you can earn coins just by having your wallet open and staking.

DeepOnion has had a great 6 months with the last few being exceptional, seeing the price per ONION go from around 60 cents and peaking around $8 USD. If we are to see DeepOnion follow the trajectory of Monero and ZCash then it’s still a great time to get involved, especially as there are still many weeks left of the airdrop giving ONIONs to those who positively participate in the forums.

Wow great article. I just paid a writer to write a blog post for me and was really happy with the result. Only to find out they copied your entire post. I definitely won’t be posting it on our blog. Thanks for the content thought!

I’ll be researching more about the coins you mentioned. They really seem to be worth it.

In my humble opinion, there is one that is not on the list, but it should be closely monitored, DeepOnion. I have invested and has given result, just look at the charts you will see a steadiness and its steady growth. I believe that with a structure with everyone involved, this currency continues to grow and surpass targets throughout the year.

Thanks for listing some of the alts to invest in 2018 but a very good and promising project was left out. DeepOnion is a very promising PoW + PoS hybrid cryptocurrency, focused on privacy and anonymity. Since it has Tor natively integrated in the client, IP addresses of its nodes stay hidden at all times. Recently the DeepVault feature was added. It allows anybody to store a hash code of any file directly on the DeepOnion blockchain, which can be used to check / prove whether the file / document was modified or not, show when it was first recorded on the blockchain atc. The devs are currently working on the DeepSend feature, which should be implemented before the end of the year. It is basically an integrated coin mixer, which will (on top the hidden IP addresses) render all transactions within the DeepOnion network untraceable. The network will thus be completely private and anonymous (hidden IPs + untraceable payments).
Last but not least, I have to say that I’ve never before seen such big, active and supporting community as DeepOnion has, which gives the coin huge power. Owing to the released white paper, many features will be implemented in 2018.
Huge dedicated community, very active developers, unique features.

Captain Altcoin is made up of investors and digital currency enthusiasts.

We have seen a strong need for better media coverage in the industry as the rise and popularity of digital currency is at an all-time high.

What do We Want?

We strive to share the most reliable, interesting, and accurate information to our readers.

CaptainAltcoin.com - All Rights Reserved
This website is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
CaptainAltcoin.com participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means CaptainAltcoin.com may get paid commissions on purchases or signups made through our links to other sites.